The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-22
IN THE ALEXANDRIA.
Mrs. Louise Chandler Mculton's Impressions
of the Enchanting Paln@c.

Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton's Impressions
of the Enchanting PalnGc.
August Cosmopolitan.
OF course we haunted the ALEXANDRIA. If hGa
not before my eyes the inexorabe limits of space,
and the fear OF my editor, would essay to make
word pictures of this enchanting place, in the
young freshness of morning, the golden glory OF
the sunset or the pale spendor of the moon; but,
when all had been said, still | know memory
would mock my words with her visions.
From the postern gate of the Siete Suelos
Boabdl, the last Moorish king, took his depart
ure after the conquest of Granada. But still
the Moors rule the Alhambra for their memory
possesses it. Their red towers guard tho heights
of old, and the snowy Sierra Nevadas look
down to see what manner of people walk through
the old haunts now. From the outside you can
form least idea of the beauty grandeur
of the place; but when once you have
skirted the barbarous, unfinished pal
ace OF Charles v and entered
the true palace beyond you
go on from court to court, from charm
so much loneliness. The creamy, pinkish walls
are covered with a tracery as delicate as FROST
work. You are in fairy land. You do not
think of size strength, any commonplace
attribute whatever Lightness was the ideal Of
Moorish architecture, solidity was that Of the
Egyptians. They turned their tent-poles into
marble pillars. ana sculptured their stucco with
the delicate traceriss of the cashmere hangings
which drapsd their tents.
The Court of the Lions is, to my thinking, the
lovellest spot in the Alhambra / imagined be-
fore saw it lions grand the sculptured lions
of Thorvaldsen; but the lions of the Alham bra
are like nothing on earth or In heaven. Their
feet are clumsy as bedposts. the alabaster basin
of the fountain rests on their patient backs. and
it's waters spout through their open mouths.
The charm of this court is not in it's lions, but
in the groups of slender pillars, and the
exquisite arches that spring from them and
the beautiful apartments into which, standing
here, as In the heart of the whole, you can look
untiringly. On one side is the hall of the Aben-
cerraees, whsre the bloodstains from the drip
ping blood of the thirty three warriors slain
there are pointed out and their unappeased
ghosts are said still to moan through the mid
night. Opposite to this haunted apartment is
the hall of the two sisters; and on the east your
vision ranges through three royal rooms leading
out of each other.
have no space to linger in the hall of the
ambassadors, in the mirador. in the mezquita.
even the court of the Myrtles or the
sweet garden of Lindaraja; but we went through
them by daylight and by moonlight. until
thought we know their loneliness by heart and
yet each time returned we found some fresh
charm. The Alhambra is like a beautiful woman
who has soul vet more beautiful than her fair
BODY, and whose loneliness varies with her mood
and yours. SO that her infinite variety holds you
could ever be an old story.
Our first day in Grenada was passed in the
Alhambra, and then, the moon being full. we
went back again at night AS I was dumb be-
fore its weird beauty then. SO it seems to me inn
possible to write of it now, for it beggars all
Words but shall never forget the soft, moon
lighted place in all it's pallid splendor. The
blood stains revealed themselves in the
light more clearly than by day; and surely4~
heard the ghosts that roam ureomfoTted
through the hall where they were slain. Yet it
seemed like the vision of dream, and you
half expected it to dissolve while you watched
it. We were glad to find it real again the next
morning.
The watch tower our trystng place for
sunset. Thence we saw the fiery sunset splen-
doris burn tho west and the snow crowned Sierra
Nevadas reflect the western glory. There be-
low us lay the City of Granada. with its churches
and converts and its $4,000 people; and, look
ing toward the hills we could see the strange
abodes where the gypsies live in their earth
holes in the hillsides.